Video Games

Two numbers to keep an eye on in the next week or so: Grand Theft Auto IV's first-week sales and Iron Man's opening-weekend box-office take.

There has been some speculation from analysts and game industry insiders that, with Iron Man opening the same week as GTA IV, normally moviegoing gamers might instead spend the entire weekend ensconced in their living rooms, controller in hand.

I doubt it – every gamer I know has been panting over Iron Man for months, and the reviews for the movie have been stellar – but it's interesting that blockbuster games are starting to be seen as competition for blockbuster movies.

Traditionally, big-budget games have come out right before Christmas, long after the summer flicks have migrated to DVD. But with game makers talking about spreading their launches more evenly throughout the year, this could become a bigger issue.

So it will be fun to see if Liberty City slime ball Niko Bellic outsells drunken billionaire Tony Stark.

The GTA sales numbers will also be revealing for a reason that has nothing do with Iron Man.

Microsoft and Sony have already sent out self-congratulatory news releases crowing about how well GTA IV sold on their respective consoles, but neither firm has provided the actual number of units sold on their systems.

Market research firm NPD probably will provide that data at some point, and then the spinning can begin.

Microsoft should sell many more copies because there are more Xbox 360s in homes right now than PS3s, due largely to the 360's one-year-earlier launch.

More consoles mean more potential software buyers.

Plus, the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV will be getting exclusive downloadable content at some point (thanks to a $50 million payment to developer Take-Two), so savvy gamers may be opting for the version with the best future payout.

But Sony has been awfully keen to highlight comments from analysts who expect sales of the PS3 version to be near, if not above, GTA IV on the Xbox 360. After all, the GTA franchise got its start on PlayStation consoles and was exclusive to Sony for a long time.

Many gamers probably still associate GTA with the PlayStation brand, and may either not have known the game was also available on the 360 or simply assumed that the PS3 version was the better or "official" version.

Me? I just want to go see Iron Man.

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Speaking of best-selling games ...

The Sims is a franchise that most hard-core gamers probably stopped thinking about three or four years ago. Well, as if we needed more proof that casual gamers are increasingly driving the games industry, Sims publisher Electronic Arts recently announced that it has sold the 100 millionth copy of the game and its various spinoffs and sequels.

I guess some people never get tired of locking their incontinent, leg-crossing, whimpering Sim serfs in a house with no bathrooms and waiting for the inevitable.

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